Monday, April 15, 2013
Immediately below, my co-blogger, Lou Sirico, asks "Should Law Schools Focus on Teaching 'Skills Competencies?'” My answer is we should teach both substance and skills in the same class. Education research has shown that students understand and remember material better when they have to apply it. Research also demonstrates that students understand and remember material better when they have to manipulate it, such as in writing a paper. Why can't law schools have antitrust classes that use problem-solving exercises at the end of each unit or assign several short written assignments? In other words, we should use skills components in every doctrinal class to help our students better learn the material. In addition, how can you have a skills class that doesn't use substantive law?